Yes, people are going to attack women in very different ways then men. I can't imagine that many people would want to create nude pics of a guy to insult him. But that's not what I am getting at -- I am trying to say that this incident does not reflect the majority of males, nor does it make the whole IT industry sexist. You can't start saying that everyone/everything is sexist just because one incident of it occurred. Maybe people being bored with her talk had nothing to do with her being a woman -- maybe it was just a boring talk.
Its been pointed out a number of places that no, this doesn't represent the majority of male developers. It's established it's a small subset of a larger population.
Even so, the fact that its a minority is irrelevant, its the fact that it happens, and the fact that it happens on a regular basis is the issue.
That it happens regularly is what makes it the norm, not that its perpetrated by the majority of people.
And as people that work in the industry, we do have a responsibility for how others act, and we should act accordingly. Yes, it may not directly be our faults, be we do have a responsibility to react to this kind of behavior, and deal with it.
Otherwise, we are condoning it and then it does become our fault. As cliche'd/dramatic as it is, this is exactly the situation that is talked about in "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"
Seriously? What part of sexism in tech fields occurs more frequently than is reported is hard to understand? For every woman who says something, there are several that don't. For every story any woman is telling on the topic, there are several more stories that she probably has but isn't telling because she'd be there all day. $#@?!
And please, say what you have to say without prefacing it with useless declarations like "I'm not XYZ but", like its some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card. If others find your perspective on the topic is warped, then they'll comment accordingly and you won't get a pass. And BTW, issues like sexism tend to exist along a continuum and sometimes even well-meaning people's views may sometimes graze or lie along it, regardless of good intentions.
EDIT: deleted duplicates (was getting error msgs that made me think the comment wasn't being posted).
Nobody said it reflected the majority of males. Nobody said it makes the whole industry sexist. Nobody said everyone is sexist. Nobody is basing their opinion on one incident.
Tell me more about this "straw man fallacy", though.
